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Joy Williams

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Joy Williams


Born
in Chelmsford, MA, The United States
February 11, 1944

Genre
Short Stories, Literary Fiction


Williams is the author of four novels. Her first, State of Grace (1973), was nominated for a National Book Award for Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Quick and the Dead (2000), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her first collection of short stories was Taking Care, published in 1982. A second collection, Escapes, followed in 1990. A 2001 essay collection, Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Honored Guest, a collection of short stories, was published in 2004. A 30th anniversary reprint of The Changeling was issued in 2008 with an introduction by the American novelist Rick Moody.

Her stories and essays are frequently anthol ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.78 · 28,476 ratings · 4,681 reviews · 81 distinct works • Similar authors
The Quick and the Dead
3.87 avg rating — 2,921 ratings — published 2000 — 17 editions
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Harrow
3.16 avg rating — 3,156 ratings — published 2021 — 17 editions
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99 Stories of God
3.65 avg rating — 2,542 ratings — published 2013 — 17 editions
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The Changeling
3.85 avg rating — 1,999 ratings — published 1978 — 18 editions
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The Visiting Privilege: New...
4.13 avg rating — 1,833 ratings — published 2015 — 18 editions
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Honored Guest
3.93 avg rating — 1,278 ratings — published 2004 — 11 editions
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Breaking and Entering
4.09 avg rating — 1,086 ratings — published 1988 — 13 editions
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Taking Care
4.28 avg rating — 969 ratings — published 1982 — 15 editions
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Concerning the Future of So...
3.85 avg rating — 874 ratings — published 2024 — 8 editions
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State of Grace
4.13 avg rating — 767 ratings — published 1973 — 20 editions
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More books by Joy Williams…

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Quotes by Joy Williams  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“She wanted to be extraordinary, to possess a savage glitter.”
― Joy Williams
1511 likes
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“She was never going to seek gainful employment again, that was for certain. She'd remain outside the public sector. She'd be an anarchist, she'd travel with jaguars. She was going to train herself to be totally irrational. She'd fall in love with a totally inappropriate person. She'd really work on it, but abandon would be involved as well. She'd have different names, a.k.a. Snake, a.k.a. Snow - no that was juvenile. She wanted to be extraordinary, to possess a savage glitter.”
― Joy Williams
tags: art, inspirational, life, love, romance, time, truth, women
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“There is a certain type of conversation one hears only when one is drunk and it is like a dream, full of humor and threat and significance, deep significance.”
― Joy Williams
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Polls

What book will we read together in August?

Ada by Mark Haber - 112 pages - published 14 July 2026
 
  3 votes, 33.3%

Cathedrals by Claudia Piñeiro - 304 pages - published 9 June 2026
 
  2 votes, 22.2%

Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth -248 pages - published 9 June 2026
 
  2 votes, 22.2%

The Home of the Drowned by Elin Anna Labba - 352 pages - published 2 June 2026
 
  2 votes, 22.2%

Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita - 464 pages - published 28 April 2026
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

The Pelican Child: Stories by Joy Williams - 176 pages - published 18 November 2025
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

9 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Queereaders: September 2016 - What are You Reading? 38 43 Oct 01, 2016 09:49AM  


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